The Action Against Bullying Award 2014/15

Brimington Junior School has won The Action Against Bullying Award in the annual Community Education Awards for its Bullying Ambassador scheme.

The school on Springvale Road, has a committee of 25 ‘Bullying Ambassadors’ made up of pupils who meet weekly to discuss issues and wear special vests to mark them out in the playground.

The ambassadors not only carry out patrols at break time, as the eyes and ears of the school, but are regarded as role models by other children. The pupils have also created an anti-bullying rap, a video advert as well as making posters to spread the word.

Children also take part in making leaflets for parents, posters and identify safe and unsafe areas of the playground.

Teacher Andrew Stewart received the award as part of a special assembly and said everybody at the school was delighted.

“We are really pleased. When we first started this project two years ago we couldn’t imagine it would go the way it has,” he said.

“It has sent shockwaves through the school. The project is the heartbeat of the school. All the children know what bullying is and they know where to go if they feel unsafe. Just the fact that all the children want to be anti-bullying ambassadors raises the bar, it is incredible.”

“We decided to take a pro-active approach to prevent issues of bullying. The ambassadors have weekly meetings where issues arising are discussed and there is a focused meeting fortnightly with myself, the anti bullying co-ordinator. Since introducing the anti-bullying ambassadors in our school 92% of our children say that they have a better understanding of the different types of bullying there are.”

Ellise Raven, 11, is one of the children on the anti-bullying committee.

“If everybody at school is happier then they will get better marks,” she said.

“It is not very nice to be on your own if you’ve got nobody to play with. So I think we should make everybody happy and make sure they’ve got friends.”

Daniel Humphreys agreed. Daniel is a national board member on the Princess Diana Anti-Bullying programme.

“I think all the bullying ambassadors have played such an important role,” he said.

“I was bullied and it felt like I was a scrap of paper and the bullies were all A3 sheets, but as a matter of fact it should be the other way around. But since his project I’ve gone from zero to hero.”

Oscar Chen, nine, also said he had experienced bullying.

“I used to be bullied because my family comes from China. So now I just like people being happy.”

Kelly Griffiths organiser of the Community Education Awards said the school had won the award after an outstanding effort.

“Bullying is not a nice thing to live with for anyone. Unfortunately it’s something that many people go through at different stages of their lives,” she said.

“But something can be done about it at primary school level where children can be taught that it’s not acceptable. This brilliant project at Brimington Junior School has literally changed lives. What the teachers and children have done is unbelievable and the judges were impressed by how this project was child-led and now lots of the pupils at Brimington all want to be bullying ambassadors, which is absolutely fantastic.”